Friday, September 12, 2014

September 10, 2014

Now that the busy, busy summer months in Nauvoo are mostly past, we took the opportunity to go with another missionary couple to St. Louis to see a Cardinals baseball game. All the stars lined up so that on our Prep Day, there was a noon game (with the Pittsburgh Pirates), the weather was sunny, and we didn't have to do a Rendezvous performance that evening. So we went to the ball game with Elder and Sister Christiansen--who are avid sports fans! The game itself wasn't too exciting until the bottom half of the ninth inning, when, with two outs, St. Louis hit three singles in a row to score the winning run. Of course, the Cardinal fans were ecstatic.

The Cardinals' stadium is located pretty much in downtown St. Louis, a little bit like Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Of course, everyone remembers Stan the Man, perhaps the most famous of the former Cardinal players.

Busch Stadium is a beautiful ball park, especially with the St. Louis Arch in the background!

Here's proof that we were actually there!

One of the Old Nauvoo "sites" that we have direct responsibility for in our recent calling as Assistant Zone Leaders is Nauvoo on the Road, which is an out-reach program that involves missionaries taking some pioneer activities, such as pioneer games, rope making, candle making, and other demonstrations, on the road to different places. Usually, they'll get permission to set up their display and demos in state, county, or local fairs. Jan and I went with them to Nauvoo's local Grape Festival.

This gives you and idea what our Nauvoo on the Road display looks like.

Of course, I had to demonstrate how pioneers walked on stilts!

Two of the missionary couples who came to Nauvoo with us were called to serve for only six months, so all of us who came together got together for a little send off party for them. We had a great feast and some fun entertainment by some of our group.

In addition to those six-month missionaries going home from our MTC group, there are about 50 other missionaries who have completed their service here this month. Our mission had an early morning breakfast--at 7:00 o'clock--to honor them.

A number of these "out-going" missionaries were teamsters, who can be seen in the little group at the front on the right. These missionaries are going to be sorely missed.

A special tribute was sung to these missionaries by a choir consisting of missionaries from the Illinois Nauvoo Temple Mission, which is separate from our "site" mission.

As a parting shot, I thought you'd enjoy seeing how we sometimes bring our horses into the barn for harnessing in the morning. For the past few days, we have been pasturing the horses in a pasture a ways away from the barn, so we have had to run them down the roads to the barn. We simply open the gate to the pasture and call them, and they come a runnin'!

And away they go!

We hope this finds you all doing well and enjoying your own circumstances. We feel very blessed to be serving here in Nauvoo. Every day we meet people who are searching for meaning in life, and we're happy to share our understanding with them. Our prayer is that the Lord will guide them in their search and that they will listen to and faithfully follow His direction.